


Repetition

by bzarcher



Series: Widow/Tracer Fics [3]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Talon Widowmaker, They're not really friends., Time Travel, test pilot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-13
Updated: 2016-09-13
Packaged: 2018-08-14 21:37:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8029726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bzarcher/pseuds/bzarcher
Summary: Part of being a good test pilot is learning how to enjoy repetition.





	Repetition

Part of being a good test pilot is learning how to enjoy repetition.

Lena Oxton hadn’t expected that, back when she’d been accepted into Empire Test Pilot School and moved to RAF Boscombe Down. It made sense, though, when she’d started really digging into the material.

The point of being a test pilot isn’t just seeing what a plane can do – it’s seeing what a plane does after doing the same thing 10, 100, 1000 times, and what has to be done to (ideally) keep both plane and pilot from becoming a messy crater when things inevitably break. Didn’t matter if she was screaming along in a top notch fighter or plodding with a cargo hauler, the job was the same.

She’d do the same set of maneuvers for hours on end, watching to see if anything changed, and when the avionics bay, hydraulics, or some other vital bit of kit decided it was tired of the tiny little human thrashing it around all day, she was ready to act.

Kick on auxiliaries, switch to rod controls, dump fuel – whatever had to be done to solve the problem and get home safely. (And if all else fails, well, there is that lovely EJECT handle…)

Write reports, check in with boffins to help determine WHY it broke, document everything, and then get ready to go up tomorrow and do it all again.

Most people didn’t think of hyperactive little Lena as someone with the patience for that, but she really did love it. She was in one of the only professions on earth where you COULD do the same thing over and over again and actually get a different result. It amused the hell out of her, honestly, even before she started to break the laws of physics.

That was a big reason why she hadn’t just gone mad when the Slipstream accident had happened. Not to say that she hadn’t been scared – Christ, yes, she’d been scared – but she’d survived. Stuck to a piece of the most complex technology on Earth for the rest of her life, sure, but she’d survived.

She suspected an ordinary person would go a bit mental after rewinding their timeline again and again, but for Lena it was just another opportunity to try something else and see if it worked this time.

Running on rooftops as she closed with the purple clad bird holding a rifle, for instance.

“Cheers, luv!”

The Talon sniper pivoted and fired in one smooth motion, but Tracer had already blinked to the side, letting the bullet smack into the brick chimney she’d just leapt over.

Last time she’d tried to slide, baseball style, under the shot, and had gotten a faceful of poison for her trouble when she’d kicked the venom mine that Widowmaker had hidden in her path.

This time she avoided the mine, blinked past another shot, then misjudged the distance between her blink and the next piece of cover she’d intended to zip behind, and felt a wet tearing sensation as the next shot from the Widow’s Kiss wrecked her shoulder.

Gasping in pain, she’d managed to roll behind the air conditioner that had been her planned destination, then looked in annoyance at the blood oozing from beneath her jacket.

“Oh, I don’t think so.”

Feeling the air burn back out of her lungs as the Slipstream pulls her backwards. That indescribable feeling of the bullet being pushed out, the blood returning, the torn muscles and shredded skin knitting back together.

The world rushes back into focus and she immediately throws herself to the opposite side. Over the wainscoting, land on the top of the fire escape, use it to springboard back, pistols encouraging the assassin to stay down while she finds a new spot to work from. Grinning like a maniac as she reloads her pistols, blowing an errant lock of hair out of her face.

Part of being a good test pilot is learning how to enjoy repetition.


End file.
